ESPN has released the first tidbits from Jeremy Schaap’s exclusive off-camera interview with Manti Te’o. According to ESPN, Schaap spoke with Te’o for two and a half hours about the fake dead girlfriend hoax. Two and a half hours. Here’s the entire tease they provided at midnight on Friday.

“No. Never,” Te’o said in an interview with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap.

“I wasn’t faking it,” he said. “I wasn’t part of this.”

“When (people) hear the facts, they’ll know,” he said. “They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.”

Well, that answers my questions. Especially the timing. And the fact that ESPN will probably release this three sentences at a time.